It hit 90 here. That is probably the highest temperature in SF for the year.

 

Where are my mukluks?
Jim

 

I just had some figs and peaches picked off the trees in the yard. They tasted like pure sugar. Very refreshing. Restored my electrolytes.

The yard is full of surprise and wonderment. I throw food scraps into the dirt. I'm rewarded with whatever happens to grow. It looks like I'll have a fall harvest of pumpkin and ginger.

For my ex, the fruits and vegetables growing in the yard was evidence of social disparity. Proof of injustice. Bourgeois luxury indulgence. The first time I harvested potatoes from the yard, and made fries with my cast iron wok; she ranted for over an hour about how poor children in the ghetto didn't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, and would never know the extravagance of tasting a fresh batch of fries. I didn't get it. I asked her, "you want me to go to Chinatown, buy a wok, and donate it to some non-profit in The Bayview?"

She was born a few decades late for socialist, hippy counterculture. The product of a middle class home in the suburbs, with 2 income earning parents: she went to all the protests and rallies driving a BMW which Daddy paid for, and wearing the most expensive clothes from the mall. She would have been the perfect recruit for a cult. Jim Jones Resort in Guyana. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Spa Retreat in Oregon. She is "mostly" vegetarian. Except for caviar, lobster, sea urchin, abalone, oysters...... and Wagyu. She has a bumper sticker that says "NO FUR". But she owns over $10,000 worth of leather purses. Her self-guided, holistic, spiritual journey system includes fortune tellers, crystals, and MDMA.

 

Fifty150,

Let me guess, she went to Burning Man this Weekend? 🥴

 

Interesting female.

Jim

 

I wish. If it were only that simple.

Burning Man is no longer a celebration of art, life, drugs, and sex. Just like Rock-n-Roll. It's been commercialized. Paris Hilton goes. And reality television cameras follow.

Instead, to escape the heat, she came over here. She still does that. Comes over whenever she feels like it. Eats my food. Drinks my beer. Sits in my chair. Eats my porridge. Sleeps in my bed.

I could be wrong about her. Maybe one day, she will make the world a better place.

Her dad once told me that it's just rebellion. Eventually, she'll find her place in the world. That was when he asked me to be one of the trustees to his estate.

She and I were no longer "a romantic couple". Like she wasn't wearing my High School ring around her neck on a chain. But she was still wearing my varsity jacket, with my name embroidered on the front. I think her Facebook no longer said that she was in a relationship. I don't have Facebook. She still waited right by my bike after school, so that everyone could see her wearing my jacket and riding on the back.

He trusted me, more than her or his sons, to be able to sign on his accounts, and be his proxy, should he fall ill or something. Not that he is a billionaire, or anything like that. It was more along the lines of collecting rent from tenants, fixing a few things like leaky faucets and changing hallway lights, and making the executive decisions on which roofing company or plumber to hire for bigger jobs. He couldn't count on any of his kids to take care of his rental units.

They only have 3 rental properties. Duplexes. So it was only 6 tenants. That was their sole source of income. The rents provided for their whole family's expenses. Nobody in that family worked. They all lived off the rent, from properties that their grandfather bought. They lived in another duplex, which was also bought by their grandfather. 4 duplexes in San Francisco. Paid off. No mortgages. Inherited at a time when the laws were a little different, so even their property taxes are based on 1950's dollars.

I guess that makes him a "multi-millionaire" - if he actually sold the properties and had the cash in hand. That was the other thing he was afraid of. If he left one of them in charge, they would just sell the properties. Killing the goose that is providing their monthly "golden egg". As far as actual cash in hand, his bank accounts only had enough money to pay a roofer or a plumber, or buy a car. He was afraid that his kids would blow it all by buying a Winnebago and going to Burning Man.

His attorney said that it was pretty simple since there were no other assets or securities to manage. 4 buildings. Collect rent from 6 tenants. If a tenant vacates, show the unit and rent it out. Fix whatever, in the most efficient way possible - which meant buying only the cheapest $35 microwave from Home Depot. 1 bank account for managing the properties. 1 personal account. No other items of value like gold coins, a gun collection, collector cars, antiquities or works of art. I'm sure that this guy has money in cash. Cash which is decreasing in value with a weaker dollar and inflation. It's going to really hurt him when MacDonald's has to pay $22 an hour, and the price of a Happy Meal goes up to $17.50.

I told him, "she is capable of intelligently making life choices". He laughed out loud. Not in that internet, text messaging kind of way where you type "LOL". Dude really laughed. Hard. Holding his gut. Tears in his eyes. His face changed color. He started coughing. I thought that I was going to have to call 911.

 

okay, so they are predicting 115 today. I am wondering if I should cancel my Door dash run today. Although, I plan on the lunch crowd between 11am and 1pm, and the major heaat shows up during the dinner hours of 5pm to 8pm so I should be okay. Car has AC, but of course, doesn't help when I am out of the car picking up, or delivering.

Jim

 

I'm still waiting for my food delivery. Did you fall asleep?

 

No, I was hit by a car.... I went up to the Riverpark area (rich side of town) to do some deliveries, after the apt manager told me that is where she makes good money. I had not even started "dashing" when a lady pulls out of the west side of the shoping center and crosses three lanes of traffic to get into the turn lane to go to the east side of the shopping center. I was in the middle lane, and saw her coming, so I moved over to the fast lane, but it was not enough, she still hit me. Now my passenger front door is heavily damaged, and the window will not go up all the way. Luckily it did not break. None of us were hurt, but it makes me mad that I have not had a vehicle accident since 1998 (which was not my fault) and now when I am trying to earn some extra money to make car payments with (and buy two front tires at a cost of $410) This happens. She has insurance and did not flee the scene so that is good. I have full coverage, so I am covered. It was clearly her fault, but now I have to drive a damaged car until the insurance lets me get it fixed. Also, not knowing how long it will take to fix, it is going to put a dent in my extra money-making ability. It is 114 out there right now, so I will wait until tomorrow morning to get some pics of the damage. I will have to figure out a way to block the window so the AC can be more efficient. Kind of hard to cool the interior, when the passenger window is half open. I don't think my insurance coverage includes a car rental while my car is in the body shop, so I will just have to pray they can fix it within a week.

On top of that, PG&E just sent an alert to turn off all essential appliances. My AC seems to be having an issue as I am sweating inside with it on, and the fan at its highest speed. It is blowing air, but not cold. Of course, this happens after the office is closed. Not a good day for me.

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortune. What terrible luck. The car is what? A week new to you?

 

That is a major bummer. You've only had that car a week? Sheesh.

 

News of the day. Nobody cares that Queen of The Netherlands was in town. Her Honor, 'da Mayor, was the only escort. The Gavinator was too busy raising hourly wage for fast food workers. President Brandon was nowhere to be found. Mrs. Emhoff was absent as well. The Donald was stuck in Burning Man traffic.

The real news, according to SFGate, is why the 9ers suck.

Weird, that she took a tour of The Castro. The neighborhood in San Francisco with the most liquor licenses. I heard that in The Netherlands, if you get a DUI, you lose your driving privileges forever.

 

The car was 12 days old when the lady crashed into it.


I have an 8am appointment at All Star Glass to see if they can fix whatever is causing the window not to go up all the way. I also received the DOJ letter I need to go pick up my firearm. So that appointment is tomorrow morning at 10am. They only release property Monday through Thursday, so if I can't get it tomorrow, I will have to wait until next Monday. I will ask the glass shop if they can get the work done in 45 minutes or so, to give me time to bring the car back home and jump on my electric scooter. It takes a good 45 minutes to get to the Police station from my apartment. If I take the car, I will have a heck of a time walking from where it is parked to the Police station.



Jim

 

Changed the oil in the van today. It's a modern vehicle, which is suppose to go up to 10,000 miles between oil changes. The intelligent oil life monitor has a sophisticated algorithm which is suppose to tell you when it needs to be done. Most people that I know, do not agree with their car's computer. Dad believes that every car should be done at 5,000 miles, because he still does not believe that oil can go 10,000, 15,000, or 20,000 miles. I do it when convenient, then justify it in my mind.

In this forum, with the f-150, the oil change discussion is beaten to death. The owners manual, versus full synthetic oil over 10,000 miles, versus, oil analysis. When it's convenient, I do it. Sometimes I reason that I have full synthetic oil, so it's fine if I exceeded the maintenance schedule recommendation. Sometimes I reason that it's fine, because the truck isn't being driven all that much. Sometimes I reason that the oil is still fine, because it's been in use for less than a year.

The van's computer allegedly monitors your drive style, and operating parameters, to determine oil contamination. Conditions such as idling, high rpm wide open throttle, hard acceleration, etc. Then it allegedly activates the "oil change" dash message, somewhere between 7,500 miles and 10,000 miles. I find that the oil change message is displayed every year. Once the van has been driven for 11 months, even if the van has only been driven a few thousand miles. Nevertheless, with only 3.500 on the oil, I changed it.

I just don't drive much anymore. Price of gas being so high, I would rather ride my motorcycle., I'm even considering buying a new motorcycle, to get even better fuel economy. Honda has a motorcycle for $1,800, which gets almost 100 mpg.

I'm lucky that both the van and the pickup can use the same weight of motor oil, and the same filters. It allows me to stock up whenever there is a low price. For whatever reason, Amazon had Motorcraft filters for $15, for a case of 12 filters. I'm not one of those people that thinks you have to use OEM parts. I'm more likely to use whatever costs less. The same Motorcraft filter that fits my van and pickup truck, is also the same canister size and thread pitch as my motorcycle. So those Ford filters are on my Harley as well. Harley guys insist that you have to use a shiny, chrome, Harley filter. They are wrong. My Harley has had a white Motorcraft for over a decade. The engine hasn't blown up yet. As a matter of fact, my Harley has also been using Ford Mercon V in the transmission for over a decade. No problems. I'm not buying Harley oil for $18 a quart, when I could buy Mercon V for a few dollars a quart.

I hate spending money. It's cultural. "My People" are known to be cheap. But sometimes, specialty tools are money well spent. I install those expensive oil drain valves on every car now. Well worth the money. It makes every oil change so much easier. No more busted knuckles, rounded off drain plugs, cross threading, cursing the last guy who put it on too tight, or finding that the last guy didn't tighten it enough. Now it's just a flip of the spigot. And the oil doesn't come gushing out, spraying all over the place. It comes straight out, right into the drain pan. No mess. Another thing that was expensive, and worth the money was FloTool "RhinoRamps". Easier and safer than jacking up the car.

 

In case any of you guys actually do buy oil and do your own oil changes at home......